Forsaken (World of Nightwalkers, #3)

by Jacquelyn Frank

[EBookObsessed]

Leo Alvarez thought he was the baddest badass in Town. Former Ranger, now mercenary for hire, he feared nothing and no one. At least he did until he found out there were truly things that went bump in the night. Leo is trying to pull his life together after being tortured by a sadistic Bodywalker. Chatha is an evil Bodywalker who hid his maliciousness behind the face of a Down syndrome man. When Leo went to assist the innocent man, he saw too late the evil that hid within. If he had not been of use to Kamenwati as a bargaining chip, Leo would still be chained down while Chatha performed his sick game of Operation on Leo, plucking out his organs and healing him over and over again so Leo couldn’t even die to escape the horror and pain.

So it is quite understandable that Leo is feeling angry and betrayed to find out this his best friend and his sister that he helped raise are now both Bodywalkers–one of “them.” Leo is afraid that there is now a monster living in the bodies of the only family he has left.

Yet when Jackson is struck down by a malicious God, Leo knows that he is the best candidate to go find someone who doesn’t want to be found, a powerful Djinn. But the Night Angel, Faith, won’t let Leo go alone to seek out another Nightwalker on his own. As a Night Angel, Faith can see Leo’s pain and anger clearly written on his “scroll”. Their quest is to find the Djinn, but Faith also plans to show Leo that like humans, there are Nightwalkers that are evil, but many more who are good.

When Faith and Leo are shown a possible future which includes love and family, will Leo look past his hatred and embrace this future or will he throw away an intense love to hold onto his prejudice and anger?

THOUGHTS:
This is a very interesting presentation of fear-based prejudices. Leo being a Hispanic man should be aware of being judged by what you are and not who you are, but after his torture, he is to willing too group all Nightwalkers into a single grouping. They have proven to him that he is too weak to fight them and so for the first time in his life, there is something that he fears.

Now that his eyes are open to the world of Nightwalkers, he has broken everything down to “us” (human) and “them” (everything else). When he first meets Faith, a Night Angel, her skin is varying shades of black, but Leo does not even notice the differences until later in the story when he starts to look at her as more than just a thing. Unlike the Gargoyles and Bodywalkers, a Night Angel can go out in the daytime, but they lose pigment and would pass for an albino. They also lose their strength and would be as weak as a human. It is once Faith looks more human, that Leo takes more notice of her curses and appearance. Although he admires her character, he constantly returns to little slights and digs like “you people.”

We know that human beings aren’t the most generous of souls to our own kind, and I am sure prejudices would burn strong and deep if there truly were “others” out there. I find it interesting that Jacquelyn Frank chooses someone who had grown up being unfairly judged by race, yet doesn’t see the failing in himself when he does it to others. Even after Faith and Leo are shown a future, where they feel the emotions they could have for each other, Leo bounces between looking at Faith with intense interest and anger for the false feelings forced upon him for one of “them.”

It takes a true epiphany for Leo to get past his own prejudices.

This was the first in the series where the Bodywalkers were secondary to the new paranormals introduced. We’ll see where it goes from here.

Received an ARC courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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